Ming Ranginui, ka kete

Artist: Ming Ranginui
Title: ka kete
Year: 2025
Material: Muka and New Zealand passport
Size: 305mm high x 300mm wide x 5mm deep 

Ming Ranginui holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) degree from Massey University, Te Whanganui-a-Tara. She continued her studies at Te Wānanga o Raukawa, specialising in raranga (weaving). Ranginui is best known for sculptural works incorporating whatu or tāniko (Māori weaving techniques) and satin smocking. She bends customary fibres and contemporary fabrics to her will, using her distinctive visual and material sensibility to reimagine everyday entities. Her works focus on the themes of tino rangatiratanga (Māori sovereignty), spirituality, and survival. The pūrākau (stories) speak to her personal experiences but also reach out to the collective experiences of Indigenous people grappling with the generational impacts of colonisation.

Ming Ranginui’s “Neighbours” is commentary on the transformation that happens as Maori relocate from Aotearoa to Australia, and the consistencies in indigenous experience of both sides of the ditch.

This new body of work critically analyses the way in which the expression of indigenous identity on foreign soils blurs the lines between the coloniser and the colonised, but reminds us that punching down does nothing to challenge colonial power dynamics.

“Marae” looks into the way pseudo revitalisations of one culture become conflated with capitalist agenda and kaupapa becomes kupapa. The wharenui letter box makes jest at the idea of residency equating to mana tangata whenua, an issue that Maori have an obligation to be sensitive to given its relevance to our past and present.

The British Empires fraternal states jest about the right to claim various baked goods ; “Cake of Origin” transmutes a poi, woven using muka and taniko techniques into the focal point of the trans-tasman tribunal — the lammington. As the tug of war wages on merrily, Maori and Aboriginal wait patiently to have their grievances heard.

Thousands of New Zealanders leave our shores in their droves, as conservative, fiscally competent governments book their tickets with redundancy payouts — “Ka Kete” weaves traditional muka kete fringes around a passport, alluding to the abundance sought by defectors. Tangata whenua (people of the land) leave others to stoke the ahi ka back home as they pursue riches in mines cutting into the heart of another peoples earth mother.

“Neighbours” explores the obligation in which neighboring indigenous peoples have to uphold the mana and dignity of each other, because everybody needs good neighbours, With a little understanding you can find the perfect blend

Neighbours should be there for one another, That’s when good neighbours become good friends